Trip through Ireland

I would love to spend 10 days in Ireland during the Easter break with a friend of mine.

Unfortunately, we do only have a budget of around € 2000 each. That is why we have chosen to make a backpacker/caravan tour through Ireland to visit the places which are most worthy to see. Unfortunately, we have only got 10 days and therefore can’t see everything.

We will book a flight from Bravo Fly, because a return flight only costs €134 per person.

We have arranged to stay the first as well as the last night in a small hostel near the airport where a double dorm costs €24.

On the second day we can pick up our not too big, not too small campervan from the company Detour. For 8 days of rent we will have to pay €376 in total.

First of all we will explore the city of Dublin, which means that we will do some sight-seeing. We’re going to visit the O’Connell Street and the General Post Office because both played important roles in Irish history which really impresses me. In further, we will visit the National Museum where an exhibition about Kingship and Sacrifice is taking place at the moment. At the end of the day we will visit the Guinness Storehouse, which is a part of the original brewery and where you can taste different kinds of Guinness.

In the evening we will try to find a cute and comfy Irish pub where we can have dinner and beer.

There’s so much to see in and around Dublin that we will stay for another day. On the second day we will visit the famous Trinity College Dublin, which is considered to be the best university in Ireland. Some of its buildings are hundreds of years old. The universities library is especially famous and  definitely worth checking out to see the Long Room. Last but not least we will visit the Temple Bar in the evening. This Pub is foremost famous for its entertainment, art and culinary specials. The bar is known for its great, vibrating parties and its wide variety of different groups of people (this means older and younger people, different social groups). The only thing is that you can also find many violent, drunk people and even pickpockets there after it has turned midnight. Therefore it is recommended to see the bar before 11pm.

After these three days we will still have left around €1500 each.

On our fourth day we’re going to start our real trip through Ireland. We leave Dublin and head to Boyne Valley in Meath, because it is not too far from Dublin and you can find some of the most impressive and important historic monuments and sites there. The best prehistoric monument is probably Newgrange which dates back to ancient times. I’m a bit sad, that we can’t be there on the 21^st of December. On that date the Winter Solstice is taking place, where the whole tomb gets illuminated, which is said to be an unimaginable phenomenon. It is possible to take a guided tour which includes visiting Dowth, Knowth and of course Newgrange.

Close to these prehistoric monuments is the site of the Battle of Boyne, where William of Orange defeated King James II in the 17^th century and became officially king of Ireland.

After this exhausting but impressive two days we will try to get some pizza and beer and go to bed straight ahead.

On day six we head to the famous Ring Of Kerry. This place lets all imaginations about Ireland’s picturesque landscape and greenery come true. This town is said to be the only one  that has more restaurants than pubs. In those cosy restaurants culinary food is served e.g. seafood, local cheeses and shellfish.

The breathtaking scenery with the incomparable cliffs, bays and unspoilt, enjoyable beaches attracts not only tourists but also famous sculptors, artists and writers.

As we are in time we will also spend day 7 at this wonderful place checking out all corners of this stunning corner of Ireland.

Before we head back to Dublin on day 9 we will spend one day and one night on the Aran Islands. We have to leave our Campervan on the mainland and reach the Islands by ferry, which will cost €20 per person (it is so cheap because we get a students discount). The Aran Islands offer visitors a glimpse into a way of life that has mainly disappeared from the rest of Ireland. The Islands are unspoilt and of raw beauty without luxurious, large and ugly buildings or hotels. If it is possible at the time we will there we are going to rent a car to drive around the coasts of Inis Mór to enjoy the beautiful, stunning landscape, the bursting Atlantic on the West coast and the calm sea on the East coast.

On day 9 we will leave the islands unhappily to go back to Dublin where our plane is going to take off the next day. As I already mentioned above we have already booked a little dorm in a hostel. My friend and me will use day 9 in Dublin to relax and sit back not doing any sight-seeing anymore. We will have coffee and cakes in a nice, cosy, little café without thinking of anything than our cultural experiences we had during our journey through Ireland. What does on need more than a cup of tea and a good tasting peace of cake?

I hope that our budget will be big enough, however, we will try to not waste money for unnecessary stuff like senseless souvenirs or unaffordable restaurants.

All in all I am convinced that this trip will be a great, character-sharping experience which will broaden our minds!

ASS4, US culture

When someone asks me what I think about US culture I personally do not have an answer. For me as a foreigner it is incredibly hard to see a homogenous US culture with typical US customs, rituals, ways of thinking etc. That’s not only because the US consists of so many different countries but rather because the US is in comparison to the rest of the world very young and mainly consists of people from different cultural backgrounds. The immigrants were mainly from Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Germany. That is also the reason why the phrase Melting Pot is well-known by almost all Americans. Melting Pot describes the multi-cultural society of America and how all those different cultural influences have formed a new culture – the American culture.

As I already said, I am unable to think of THE American culture. This has also to do with the fact that I have never been to America. I know of course that stereotypes and prejudice are most of the time untrue but I would like to mention some of them here in my blog. Prejudice and stereotypes play an important role in people’s minds and opinions about something, independent if they are true or false.

So here’s a list of the most common prejudice against Americans and the American culture:

·         All Americans are fat.

·         Americans do not cook at all – they always have fast food.

·         Americans do not speak any other language than English, because they are either too lazy or too arrogant to learn a new language.

·         All Americans are superficial – they judge people by the way they are looking.

·         Americans want to befriend with everybody – but when it comes to helping eachother it is all fake.

·         Americans are very patriotic.

·         Americans are not frankly interested in any other culture of the world.

I belief that there might always be a true aspect about a prejudice. For example, it is a fact that there are more obese people living in America than in Europe. But nobody ever considers that the average of obese people in Nauru or New Zealand is incomparable higher than in the US. So you can clearly see, that people in Europe have a fixed impression of America without checking if it is true or not. I don’t know why people do not ever talk about New Zealand’s or Kuwait’s problem with obesity.

Another typical prejudice is that foreigners often think that you could never have a deep and honest friendship with an American. Americans are thought to be always friendly and polite as long as they do not have to do anything FOR somebody else or have to help somebody else. They want to get on well with everybody but do not want to have anything to do with someone else’s problems. This is again something that I consider to be untrue. It doesn’t matter where a person is from – it is just human to have deep friendships. Everybody needs friends with who one can talk about his/her problems, worries, feelings etc. Why should Americans be excepted from this rule? I think Americans just want to be friendly and Europeans often interpret this incorrectly as a sign for friendship whereas for Americans this is just a social etiquette.

All in all it is clear for me that prejudice and stereotypes are only a grave consequence of misunderstandings between different cultures. It is hard to break these prejudices and make people understanding that people from other cultures behave, react and think differently.

Corrected version of paragraph of PC2

Here’s the corrected version of the writing task of PC2. This time my paragraph was at least slightly better than the one from PC1.

“While there is an obvious connection between these two items, there are also a number of significant differences. While the Vikings came to Ireland around 800 B.C. to take land and resources from the island of Ireland, the Protestant Settlers emigrated to Ireland, specifically to Ulster, because King James I gave land to them. Still, the decisive reason for themselves was to acquire land and become richer than they were in Britain.  King James made this cunning plan in order to bring Protestantism, British culture and loyalty to the crown to Ireland. He wanted Ireland to be a sovereign part of England. The Irishmen saw both peoples – the Vikings as well as the Protestant settlers – as invaders. The significant discrepancy was that the Viking were seen as brutal killers and cruel rapists, who only wanted to exploit Ireland. The settlers, on the other hand, did not show violence. Still, the Plantation Settlers were not accepted by the Irish people either. They did not try to take the Irish land by using violence, but rather tried to incorporate Protestantism, the English language and British habits into the Irish culture. They indirectly tried to persuade the Irishmen of the United Kingdom. Further to that, there were greater links between the Protestant Settlers and the Irish people. One main point that connects them is, that they could communicate with eachother. Although English was not the origin language of Ireland, they had to learn it because of former invasions by the British. Both foreign cultures have clearly affected Ireland, but it is clear that the impact of the Protestant Settlers on Ireland is much bigger. Nowadays, Ulster is part of the UK of GB which was one of the main goals of King James I and his Plantation Settlers.

corrected version of my third homework task

This is the correction of my third homework task. My writing skills have improved, but unfortunately I got the wrong task. In my first sentence I said that I would going to write about the foundation of the United Irishmen but then started to write about their goals and longings for Ireland. 

Corrected version (with a different head sentence):

The most fascinating aspect of Irish culture that I learned about by watching the Story of Ireland was the importance of the “United Irishmen” for Ireland with their longing for a free and independent Irish Nation. In 1791 the United Irishmen were formed by educated, Protestant people from the south, middle-class Catholics from the north and nationalists from Ulster. Their goal was to break the link with Britain and acquire independence as well as religious freedom. At the same time there was a group formed on the side of the Protestants – “The Orange Order”. They were called the Orange Order because William of Orange had been the king of England since 1689. In 1796 Wolfe Tone, who was one of the most important leaders of the United Irishmen went to France to ask for military help. He promised the French king loyalty in case of a war against Britain and therefore received military support. Tone arrived at the West coast of Ireland with 15000 troops and 43 military ships. Unfortunately, the Irish were unlucky because the weather was bad, which caused that the French troops returned home. Once again the revolution could not take place.

Lovely, cosy, amazing ..... Saalbach-Hinterglemm

Winter time, yeeeeeeeeeeeah! Skiing, Snowboarding and Aprés Ski time!

I really love winter, snow and skiing. That is why I am so proud to have grown up in the awesome village Saalbach-Hinterglemm, where winter is the most important time of the year.

Saalbach-Hinterglemm is not only one of the oldest but also one of the largest ski areas in Austria. It is well-known and visited by tourists from all over the world – Russians, Americans, Irish, British etc. There are numerous ski and snowboard instructors who are mainly from the northern part of Europe, basically from the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. You can have such a good time meeting different people from different countries with different culture. In further, it is especially for me as an English student a great chance to practice my language skills, because most people from the North of Europe speak proper English.

Still, the most amazing thing about winter is skiing. I am sure that there is hardly any other place in the world which is so peaceful, wonderful and stunning like snowed mountains at 8.30. At this early time there are only very few people on the slopes or when you’re lucky, there won’t even be one single person in sight. So you stand there, on the top of the mountain, looking down on the village with its small houses and be not thinking of anything at all. Then finally there comes that indescribable moment when you start skiing down the untouched slope, breathing in the cool, fresh air and feel the fresh snow under your skies. All you have to do in this amazing moment is not to think about anything and just let your skies get you down to the bottom of the mountain enjoying the high speed and amazement. 

It is not only the morning hours which make skiing in Saalbach so unique but also the great pow. There are many “off-pists” which are safe and where you can enjoy the deep snow after a snow-covered night. Everybody who adores skiing will be crazy about powder snow (powder snow is fresh, fluffy snow).

Another big role plays Aprés Ski. That is one part of winter which makes Saalbach so popular. Of course there are other nice ski areas around the world, but none of them have real Aprés Ski. It is especially young people who fancy partying after the lifts have closed. Skiers and Snowboarders go to alms and bars, still wearing their ski gear, singing typical Aprés Ski songs such as “Sweet Caroline” and start having a good time with friends as well as with strangers.

In case you’re not motivated for party because you’re on holidays with your boy- or girlfriend, Saalbach offers alternatives. You could, for example, spend a relaxing evening in the SPA of one of the cosy hotels or you could stay some nights in a lovely, little cottage somewhere in the mountains. You can enjoy your togetherness in front of the stove just enjoying the relaxed and easy atmosphere.

In the end you can see that you really need to come to Saalbach to enjoy the incomparable, picturesque landscape, the multi-cultural mixture of people and the fantastic parties!

Here are some pics to get an impression: